


Suddenly in Marvel (working title)

by Queen_Amya



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: At least after most of Civil war, Author does not like Steve Rogers, Cannon who is that? Never heard of her, He'll get character development tho, How Do I Tag, I´ll just tag as I go, Movie Night, Multiverse, My First Fanfic, No Beta, Not Canon Compliant, Not Steve Friendly, OC, Original Character - Freeform, Self-Insert, That is basically just a better version of me, WIP, Work In Progress, and i am not ashamed, author is not native in english, but no heavy hate or anything, i daydreamed this so often, i guess, smart shuri
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 01:28:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21619252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_Amya/pseuds/Queen_Amya
Summary: When Mira wakes up, she finds herself in an endless white void. A voice tells her, that she will be put into another univsere - the MCUShe will have to deal with being in a universe she doesn´t belong to.(I´ll write a better summary as soon as I know how to do that)Honestly, it´s a shamless power fantasy that I started writing a while ago.I am terrible at writing summaries, but i promise the story is pretty good.Well, at least considering english isn´t my native language.Work In Progress
Comments: 8
Kudos: 31





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As I said in the summary, this is just the written form of my self insert daydreams. It´s basically a power fantasy, my OC is a better version of myself.  
> I decided to write this story to connect all the drabbles that i keep imagining.  
> I do not write regularly (or fast for that matter) and I don´t expect this to actually get read. But if you do read it, support and constructive critisism is appreciated.  
> Yeah, that´s all I have to say for now.

### Prolog

“What the hell? “, was the first thought that came to my mind when I woke up. Because I was definitely not in my room. Unless my room transformed into an endless white void overnight. And I was pretty sure, that that didn´t work well with physics.  
Suppressing a groan at a sudden flash of headache, I sat up and looked around. Yup, definitely void: there was nothing to see, the ground was flat, and it didn´t really seem like there was some kind of a ceiling (or walls for that matter), just endless white. 

I knew, I should be panicking right now, but for some reason I was strangely calm. Confused, yes. But calm. Have I been drugged? I couldn´t remember.  
I was thirsty, hungry and really wanted to know what the hell was happening. Thoughts paced through my mind as I tried to find a way to solve these problems. With a shrug I decided to try the least crazy one. 

I shouted: “Hello? Is there anyone?” No answer. I stood up and realized that I wore my pjs. “Not the most practical kind of clothing for an adventure like this”, I thought and immediately scolded myself out loud: “Adventure? Are you completely crazy, Mira? For all you know you could be dead?” But somehow I couldn´t bring myself to care. 

Out of a lack of other options I decided to try again, this time in my native language: “Hallo? Ist da irgendwer?” (a/n The character is Austrian, just like me, but I write everything in English, except if it makes more sense otherwise. German fanfics just feel weird)

Now I got an answer: “Hallo Mira” 

You´d think, that that was soothing – to know I was not alone. But the fact, that the voice seemed to come out of the void from every direction finally managed to freak me out. 

I turned around and took a few steps backwards in a successless attempt to find the person who spoke. I am sure, if I could see myself, I would look like a wild animal in a cage. 

“Where are you?” 

“Everywhere” 

Great, way to help me calm down. 

“Yeah. That’s really not the way it works”, I answered, trying to seem nonchalant. 

“It is in this universe”

Okay, that´s enough. I was hallucinating. There was no other way. But I decided to go with hallucination and asked: “This universe?”

“Have you heard of the multiverse theory?”

“Okay, let’s just assume that is true. What am I doing outside my –verse?”

“We choose one person from every universe for our experiment”

“What experiment?”, I asked, actually concerned for the first time in this (very weird) conversation. 

“We want to see how humans act when they have to live in another universe. You will not be able to feel sadness thinking about your past universe”

“So, you´re just gonna yeet me into another verse, or what?” once again I was trying to seem calmer than I was. I would not let it (whatever it was) see, how much it scared me. So I squared my shoulders and held my head high while asking.

“You are allowed to choose your future universe.”

With that being said, there suddenly appeared something looking like a holo-touchscreen right in front of me.  
Okay, now it was time for me to start panicking again. Which I did.  
I nearly collapsed right there, but just before I did that, I was completely calm again, just like when I woke up.  
It had almost certainly drugged me. Yay. 

I went through my options. A) Just act like nothing ever happened, go to sleep and hope, it was just a dream. Unlikely to succeed and stupid. I would make myself look vulnerable.  
B) Act along and do what it wanted. It could still turn out to be a dream. And if it wasn´t, it was the safest option.  
I went with B (No shit, Sherlock). 

Taking a step forward I looked at the display.  
It seemed like I was allowed to choose between different kinds of universes. I skipped through the text and quickly found out that there was no universe similar to mine registered. 

However, I did find a section that actually captured my interest. “Fandoms”  
It didn´t take long for me to decide that, if I had to choose another verse, the MCU was the place to be.  
I clicked and caused another screen to appear. On that one I could work out the specifics, that I wanted.  
Half an hour of drugged calmness later I was finished. 

I would appear in Siberia, right before Cap would leave Tony alone. It would be in a verse where Infinity War and Endgame wouldn´t happen. (At least not so soon) And Asgard wouldn´t be completely destroyed. Because they still had to build it back up and couldn´t leave so soon, Thor and Dr. Banner would arrive at MCU earth a month after me. I also couldn´t resist giving myself minor changes. I got rid of my scoliosis and just slightly enhanced my reflexes. And I gave myself something comparable to a “spidey-sense”. It was basically just being able to sense when someone was standing behind me and being able to tell who this person was, if I knew them.

Of course, I gave myself new clothes (that would apparently materialize around me, as soon as I got there: Underwear, jeans, a warm shirt and a white coat that wouldn´t restrict my movement to much. Along with that I gave myself the ability to make my face unrecognizable. Like, everyone would still be able to see it when I did that. But no one, not even computers or scanners would be able to identify me.  
And, because I honestly couldn´t let the opportunity slip by, I also gave myself the ability to change my clothes into a superhero suit in black and dark blue. Maybe I would get to be a superhero too, I mean it´s Marvel.

I stepped back from the console and took a deep breath. Since I hadn´t woken up yet, it seemed like I had to accept this whole thing as reality.  
“Okay, I´m ready. Yeet me.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here´s the first chapter.  
> As i said, I don´t write that much. The only reason I am able to update today is that I pre wrote the first 2 chapters.
> 
> Thanks to everyone who gave this work kudos! I honestly didn´t even expect anyone to read this, so I am really hyped about that.
> 
> Well, enough talking, enjoy the story!

I´ll be honest, I didn´t expect to be yeeted immediately. But the second the words left my mouth I found myself nearly throwing up into a pile of snow.

I caught myself quickly and scanned my surroundings. An honestly, I shouldn´t have been so surprised to see Captain Amerika and the Winter Soldier standing on my left. Or well, they had been standing. Because they just started walking away, reveling a passed-out Tony Stark in a destroyed Iron Man suit. Just like in they movies they were just gonna let him freeze to death. (I know, he didn´t die. Still not a cool move from the super soldiers)

Following through with the plan I had formulated in the void I shouted: “Where do you think you are going?”

That caught their attention.  
As soon as they both had turned around to look at me, I continued: “Are you just gonna leave him here to die, or what?!”

Taken aback by pretty much everything in this situation (emotionally and physically exhausted from the fight, a girl in the middle of nowhere scolding him, one of the biggest heroes ever, the list goes on) Rogers stammered: “No. That´s not…”

I interrupted him right there, snapping: “Well then, what are you waiting for? He isn´t gonna pick himself up now, is he?” 

Still looking confused as hell, the super soldiers followed my hidden suggestion. They went back to the first self-made superhero and picked him up. It was a bit difficult, since the Winter Soldier could only use one hand, but they managed it.

“Where do we go now?”, asked Barnes and shit, I hadn´t thought about that. 

“I have a hovercraft parked ten minutes from here.”, T’challa, who seemingly arrived out of nowhere, saved me from embarrassing myself. I nodded, trying to manipulate everyone (including myself) into thinking I was even remotely in control of my life. 

It seemed to work because Rogers told the prince (? King?) to lead the way. As soon as we were on the way we settled into an uncomfortable silence.

T`challa interrupted it by asking: “Will nobody talk about the child?”

At this everyone turned to look at me. I shrugged and decided to tell them: “Well, there is not much to talk about. I wake up and instead of my room I see a white void. A voice tells me, there is a multiverse and I have to go to another universe. I select one that everyone in my universe knows from movies. And here I am.”

“Multiverse? Movies?”, Rogers didn´t look very convinced. 

“I understand that you don´t believe me-“ 

Barnes whispered to himself: “Why should we?” And he had a point there. 

Ignoring the interruption, I continued: “I can prove it. Captain Rogers. When you rescued Mr. Barnes during WW2 you said: “I thought you were dead.” To which he responded with: “I thought you were smaller.””

The super soldier looked taken aback when he nodded: “That is exactly what happened.”

T´challa still looked skeptical, so I told him: “I also know about the Vibranium and the whole Black Panther thing”

He looked shocked for a second, then he said: “I believe you. But I still don´t know your name.”

“Mira. Also, where will you fly us to. Wakanda?”

He nodded and then with a pointed look in the direction of the heroes he added: “We´ve got a lot to discuss” 

On the hovercraft we secured Tony but we didn´t dare to take him out of his suit, scared we would damage the man inside. Taking of my coat, I sat down next to T´challa, the super soldiers in the seats behind us.

As soon as the Wakandanian (?) took off and told us, that we could stand up now, Rogers made his way to the back of the hovercraft where we couldn´t see him.

Turning around to Barnes I said coldly: “He is probably having a mental breakdown right now. You should follow him.” 

No one could hate me for not liking Steve. Not after the movies Civil War and Endgame. I know they never happened (completely) in this universe, but the person was the same. Like, they couldn´t bring Natasha back, but Steve could alter the timeline to dance with a married woman? I think not. 

I was so lost in thought that I startled when the Winter Soldier stood up and went to comfort his friend.  
Taking a deep breath (once again), I turned around. 

“I like you; you know? Ordering Captain Amerika and a worldwide feared assassin around like you don´t even notice it”, T´challa chuckled.

My face went red. I didn´t order anyone around. Did I? 

I protested, only to be interrupted by the man next to me: “You really don´t notice it.” He sounded somewhere between amused and unbelieving. 

I shook my head and said (ordered? No, definitely said): “We should inform Ms. Potts.” 

I was woken up by the sound of Steve Rogers screaming: “What are you doing? That´s a mountain!” 

It took a second for me to remember where I was, but when I did, I laughed quietly: “Relax, he knows what he is doing.” 

And if I kept my eyes closed even though I knew, that there was no mountain, then that´s nobody’s business.

As soon as I heard an exited: “I already love this place” from Barnes I opened my eyes again. 

And let me tell you, the Wakanda you saw in the movies was one hell of an understatement. 

I watched with wide eyes as the most beautiful view I had ever seen unfolded under us. And the city, holy shit, it was simply amazing. I could basically feel the super soldiers gaping behind me all the way down to the airport (?).

When we arrived T´challa quickly informed us that he already informed everyone about us and that the Dora-Milaje would escort us to the hospital; then he nearly ran of the hovercraft.

We followed him, but as soon as we were out of the plane I stopped. A few meters in front of me I saw T´challa hugging his sister and his mother.  
And as Steve Rogers, considerate as ever, tried to go closer to them I extended an arm to stop him and hissed: “Give them some time.” 

I mean seriously, their dad/husband just died. He nodded and I took my arm back. 

“You have to be the visitors we´ve been told about”, I heard from my left and had to stop myself from a fan-freak-out. 

Because that was Okoje. Aka the general of the Dora-Milaje. Aka an icon. 

I somehow managed to control myself and answered: “Yes. And you are…?” 

She raised an unimpressed eyebrow and said: “By what T´challa told me you should know that.” 

Well, here goes my plan to keep a low profile. 

“I do, general Okoje. I just wanted to be polite”, I replied and kept my voice equally unimpressed.

If the warrior was surprised, she hid it well, telling us to follow her and four other Dora-Milaje. I looked at the two fossils and pointed my head at the hovercraft reminding them of Tony Stark, who was still lying in there. As they went to pick him up, Okoje shot me a look that I couldn´t quiet place. 

We were led through the giant building that probably was the palace. I lost track of the way very quickly and before we arrived even the enhanced human beings under as started sweating. I mean, they had to carry not only a man but also a very heavy metal suit. 

Luckily it took only two more minutes until Okoje opened a door and led us inside a big room that looked like a high-tech version of the hospital-wing in Harry Potter. She pointed at an empty bed and with a sigh of relive Barnes and Rogers made their way over there. 

Seconds later the doctors arrived, talked quietly in Wakandian (?) and told Okoje (and me, they used English) that they had to perform a surgery. As the bed was rolled out of the room, I shoot a glare at Steve and Bucky who were getting their own wounds treaded at the far end of the hospital. 

Now that I didn´t have to worry so much about Tony, I actually had time to take in my surroundings. I was wrong when I had described it Harry Potter like. Very wrong. The room was clinically white and instead of curtains between the beds, there were walls that just materialized or de-materialized as needed. Pretty much what I should have expected from Wakanda. 

After I had finished admiring everything, I realized I was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. 

Turning to Okoje I asked: “And now…?” 

“Now you will wait.” That simple sentence told me a lot. 

Okoje or the Dora-Milaje, maybe even T´challa, saw me as a threat. But I didn´t seem dangerous enough to be under constant watch, doctors would do  
.  
“Tell your friend to stay in here as well.” And that told me that she, just like T´challa believed, I ordered the super soldier around. She also trusted me more than them. 

These thoughts were probably the reason everyone placed me in Slytherin. 

So was my answer: I looked into Okojes eyes, keeping a neutral face and said: “Okay”, like I had a choice, like I was agreeing and hadn´t just been given an order.

I didn´t know whether she saw through my behavior or not as she nodded and left the room together with her fellow warriors. 

Lacking any better options, I made my way over to the Americans and sat down in a chair opposite of theirs. 

“She told me, that we have to stay here.” 

Then I went quiet.  
I could see, that everyone of us was trying to find a topic to talk about, but no one seemed to succeed.

About one hour of uncomfortable silence and awkward glances later, one of the doctors that had taken Stark away earlier came to us. 

“Mr. Stark is awake and would like to talk someone, who can explain what happened.” 

Rogers stood up, but I (once again) stopped him: “Are you trying to give him a panic attack? You almost killed him, stay away from him! Thank you, doctor, I will go.”  
While I almost snarled the first part, I changed my voice to be calm when talking to the Wakandanian (?)

He nodded and gestured for me to follow him, which I did. We went to a door opposite the one, we entered through. Then the second door right. It was a small hospital room. Big window, door that probably led to a toilet, bed. And on the bed was Tony Stark.

“Hey, doctor? Yeah, I think you brought the wrong person. I don´t know this girl. Hey? Hey!”  
The doctor left while the billionaire was talking and left me awkwardly standing in the middle of the room. 

“Uh, hey, Mr. Stark. –“, I began.

But before I could continue, the hero interrupted: “Hey, child. Can you get me someone who, you know, can explain why I am here? Like, an adult?” 

I almost laughed at his typical Tony-Stark-nonchalance, but I heard that he only tried to hide, that he was scared and confused.

So I stepped closer to the bed and said calmly: “The only available adults, that could do that are Barnes and Rogers. And I am not letting them anywhere near you. But I could help you.”

I watched him carefully and saw, how his eyes widened for a second, when I mentioned the super soldiers, before he said: “Well then, help me?” 

“I will be honest. I will tell you everything. Even the, well, not so nice details…”

Of cause, I also had to prove him, that I knew him from movies. But that was relatively easy. 

After I had told him everything, he asked: “Where is Pepper? The kid alright?”

“Peter is fine, as far as I know. I can´t tell you, where Ms. Potts is, but T´challa contacted her. 

As if he had heard us, said man knocked on the door and entered. 

After telling Stark, that his girlfriend was on her way he said: “Mira, my sister would like to do a little test with you, because of the whole multiverse shit. Her words, not mine.”

I nodded and shortly after that a not-so-talkative Dora-Milaje led me through the palace to the princess’s lab. 

When we arrived, she knocked on the door, that opened itself. After I stepped in, she went away and the door closed again.

Before I had time to actually look at the lab, I was greeted by the coolest Disney princess™: “Hi! You have to be Mira. My name is Shuri. But you probably know that?” 

Slightly overwhelmed I nodded and stammered: “Yes… I am, and I do, I mean.”

“Sit down on the couch, I just need a hair from you.” 

I followed her invitation and ripped out a hair, holding it out to her. 

She took it, but giggled: “We could have used scissors.”

I smiled warmly, before adding seriously: “You have to understand that I don´t want people I don´t know to go near my head with sharp things. Not after the whole ... today.” 

“Wise”, she joked, obviously trying to lighten the mood. 

I sat there, looking around in the lab awkwardly, having nothing to do, until Shuri started a conversation: “So, Mira. You know us from movies.”

“Yeah”

“Did you read fanfiction?”

My face went deep red. (all the smut) 

“We will never talk about that again!”, I declared terrified.

I heard Shuri laugh, then she said: “So, what country are you from. You gotta tell me everything about your -verse!”

“Except for the Marvel-fanfics!”, I reminded, “I am from Austria, and I can´t say this sentence without thinking about that stupid song. The main difference between our -verses is, that in mine there are no heroes, at all. We have never had any kind of alien attack, and Wakanda literally doesn´t exist. Neither did/does Hydra.”

“Sounds peaceful”

I full out snorted. That was a terribly ridiculous thought. 

Raising an eyebrow, the princess continued the interview: “Who is president of the USA?”

“You really don´t want me to answer that question.”

“No, come on!”

“Okay. Don´t say, I didn´t warn you. It´s Donald Trump. And it´s working as good as you imagine right now.”

Shuri, in her overdramatic fashion pretended to faint before she asked: “Wait, really?”

I nodded.

“Okay, what the absolute fuck? Anyways, funnier topics: Do you know vine…”

“Oh right, it´s still alive here!”

“Still alive?”

“Yeah, I don´t know why, but it died after some time.” 

“I will make my brother buy it!”; I could hear the determination in her voice. 

We spend almost two hours talking about vines and memes. I told her about a few Marvel memes, that, of cause, didn´t exist in this universe. Her favorite one was “Language!”  
We were interrupted in the middle of a discussion of how the grammar had changed on Tumblr, as the door opened and T´challa entered. 

“Brother!”, greeted Shuri, while I stood up, trying to be polite. 

“Shuri. Mira, Stark and I talked.”, he sat down on another couch, and I took that as my que to do the same. 

“Yes?”, I asked. 

“You are outside of your universe. And unless we find out, how to send you back, you have nowhere to go. Don´t look at me like that Shuri. We´ve decided, that you can stay in the palace, at least for now. Stark proposed to let you live in his tower, but at the moment he has some serious problems to sort out. If you agreed to stay here, you´d be our guest. What do you say?”

I was overwhelmed. I mean, sure, they were right: I had nowhere to go. But that both, the prince/soon to be king, and Mr. Stark offered to take me in was – just wow.

After a long pause, where I processed all of that I finally answered: “Wow. Thank you. I´d love to stay here!”

I hesitated before I asked: “What about Barnes and Rogers? And the other Avengers, that didn´t sign?” 

“They get to stay in Wakanda. But not in the main part of the palace.”

T´challa stood up again and left saying: “Ms. Potts has already arrived and will probably visit you soon here to thank you.”

As soon as the door had closed, Shuri shouted: “YESSSSS! Do you have any idea how it is to be the only one in the palace who knows vine?”

“Yes, if you cut the palace part!”

The next interruption of us, forming our friendship was indeed Ms. Potts. I found myself internally freaking out again. 

After she came inside and greeted both of us, she sat down on the sofa, next to me and said: “I just wanted to thank you for saving Tony. He probably didn´t tell you – he is like that most of the time –, but he is also very grateful. That´s why he agreed to let you in his tower.”

She smiled warmly and I returned it, saying: “Thank you, Ms. Potts” 

“If you´ll excuse me, I´ll go back to my idiot of a boyfriend now”

Later, in the evening, Shuri showed me a room next to hers, that would be mine. But room is the wrong word. I had a living room with a small kitchen and a bedroom, I had bathroom with whirlpool, and a study. It was as big as the whole flat I had lived in, before all of this happened.  
The princess also lent me some of her clothes, because the warm things I was wearing weren´t exactly comfortable in the middle-African climate.

Newly equipped with a black skirt and a white shirt, I was dragged to the dining room, where T`challa and his mother were already waiting. 

After an awkward introduction (I didn´t know, how to behave around the queen-mother), we ate. And while the others talked, my half-starved-ass stayed quiet and shoveled food into my mouth. 

Later in my bed, I fell asleep quickly, exhausted from the, let’s say, eventful day.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for your kudos and the comment!  
> It really inspired me to write, so you might not have to wait to long for the next chapter. 
> 
> So, in this chapter the story really starts. The others were more like an intruduction to the universe

I woke up to someone furiously knocking on my door.  
I groaned, not fully awake yet and yelled: “Who´s there?”

“Shuri. And if you don´t open the door immediately, I am going to hack into the system and do it myself!”

Sitting up in my bed, I said: “Come in.”

The door unlocked (the tech here was intuitive like this) and Shuri entered and flopped herself onto the bed next to me.

She held out a box, explaining: “Breakfast. It´s ten o´clock.” Extending her other arm, she continued: “Here are some clothes. We are going shopping today, I already asked my mother, she said it was okay.”

I quickly ate the sandwich, brushed my teeth and put on the clothes (a black skirt and a gray shirt this time) and let Shuri drag me out of my room. 

“Before we go, were gonna visit Stark. And Rogers and Barnes also wanted to talk to you. That was funny. Rogers showed up an hour ago, asking to see you. We sent him to a salon. Barnes came ten minutes later. They are in the rooms next to each other and they have no clue.”

By now we had arrived at the hospital room. Shuri knocked and, without waiting for an answer, she opened the door. 

“Hey, children. I didn´t ask yesterday. What did they do with my suit?”

Stepping closer and closing the door behind us, the princess answered: “It was completely destroyed. The doctors got you out of it, it´s pieces are safe, you can have them as soon as you are ready to leave this bed.”

“-kay. So, kids, any reason, you are here?”

“I wanted to thank you for offering to let me stay in your tower.”

“No biggy. Now shoo, I am trying to watch TV”

Shaking our heads at the man’s antics, we left. Almost at the same time we said: “He is even worse in reality than on TV.” 

We looked at each other and cracked up. Soon we were a giggling mess, on our way to the super soldiers.  
Pausing long enough to compose ourselves, we entered the first room. 

Rogers was inside it, still dressed in his Captain America suit, looking out of the window, but he turned around as soon, as he heard us. 

“Princess. Mira.”, he greeted, unironically bowing and I could sense that that was nearly enough to get Shuri laughing again. 

I nodded as a greeting and prompted: “You wanted to talk to me?”

“Yes. I wanted to thank you. You stopped me from doing something very stupid in Siberia. Even though I will always protect Bucky, Tony is my friend and I want him to be safe.”

Resisting the urge to raise an eyebrow at the last part I said coldly: “The world needs Tony Stark alive.” I had chosen my words carefully, not acknowledging that he said thanks and making clear, that I didn´t do it for him without being impolite.

Before Steve could say anything else, Shuri grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room: “Well, then. We gotta go. Bye.” 

As soon as the door closed behind us, she remarked smiling: “You really don´t like Captain Amerika, do you.” 

In an equally joking voice, but being completely serious, I answered: “Well, I don´t really trust him.”

It was almost comically, how much Bucky´s greeting mirrored Steve’s. He was wearing Wakandian clothes and had a shawl wrapped around his left shoulder.

“Hi, Mr. Barnes”, I greeted back.

Since I was willing to talk longer this time, I sat down, Shuri and Barnes following (in that order)

The super soldier started the conversation: “I wanted to thank you, for stopping us. Steve would have never forgiven himself, if Stark had died. And I already am responsible for enough deaths, especially in the Stark family. I don´t want to cause any more.” 

His face was lacking any emotions as he said this, but it didn´t hide the sadness and guilt clearly visible in his voice. 

I flashed him a warm, reassuring smile and said: “You´re welcome.”

He turned to the princess and continued: “I also wanted to ask you something, your highness?”

Shuri motioned for him to go one and he did: “Do you know if there is a way to fix me. I mean, a way to get the trigger words, that… that they installed in my head, out?”

“I think so. I will discuss it with the doctors.”

“Thank you so much! And… Tell me, if I am asking too much… but, about my arm…”

“No problem. It should be finished by the end of the month. I will have to ask you to come to my lab a few times.”, I could tell by her voice, that she was already planning how to make the prothesis work.

“I owe you!”, he said.

Our conversation quickly slipped into easier topics and it was already twelve, when left. 

“Holy shit, it´s like you are like two different people in one body!”, Shuri declared, as she already pulled me to our next designation.

“Where are we going now?”, I asked.

“My room. I got something, I wanna show you.”

It turned out, that she wanted to Komoja (?) beads, and a laptop-like high tech thing.

“I already configurated them for you. Sit down, I will show you how they work”, pulling me down on her bed next to her, the princess started renting about both devices, what they could do and how I could make them do it.  
“Put on the beads. We´ll put the laptop into your room and then we´ll go eat lunch with the Dora-Milaje.”

I put on the bracelet, took the laptop and got up while asking: “You sure? They don´t really seem to like me.”

Shuri stood u too and said: “Nah. They thought you were a threat. Now you are a guest, they´ll be nice now. Or their equivalent of it. They are always a bit grumpy, but actually they are really nice.”

A few minutes later, Shuri opened a door and led me into the cafeteria, I guess? It was full of Dora-Milaje and the princess maneuvered us to a small table, where Okoje was already sitting, obviously waiting for us. (There were three plates on the table, but no other warrior was anywhere nearby)

We sat down on the remaining chairs and the general teased: “Oh there are you! What took you so long?”

Shuri just laughed and left the question unanswered.  
Then she said: “I have to show you that picture of T´challa. I talked about Nakia this morning and look how flustered he got!”

She did something with her beads and a holo-screen appeared, showing an embarrassed looking T´challa, trying to hide his face in his hands.

“I assume you know who Nakia…?”, asked Shuri and as I nodded, she explained: “My brother has the most hilarious reactions to her. Once he ran into a wall, because he was too focused on her. Wait, I have the video somewhere…”

She pulled up the footage and I have to admit it was ridiculously funny. 

“You really love to embarrass your brother, don´t you?”, I managed between two giggles.

She shrugged: “It´s fun”

After the incredibly good lunch, we went to buy me some clothes. Okoje accompanied us and it turned out that that was good, because without her, we would have lost each other ten times on the way to the store. It was outside the palace and it felt nice to see more of the beautiful city. The buildings were art and the people were extremely friendly. 

The store that Shuri wanted to go to first had mostly typical Wakandanian (?) clothes, but that was no problem since they were insanely beautiful.  
We spent the rest of the afternoon in different shops. At the end of our trip, all three of us had to carry bags and I had enough clothes that I could probably fill half of the wardrobe with them. I reminded myself to thank T´challa, since, in the end, he was the one who payed. 

After dropping the bags in my room, Shuri and I went to the dining room. 

T´challa was already there, his mother would come shortly after. I took the chance and thanked him. He just said that I was welcome, and that I had nothing to thank him for, since I was a guest.

This time, dinner went slightly less awkward.  
At the beginning the princess told the others about the shopping tour, then she started talking about the time we had spent with the Avengers. 

“It´s really crazy! Like, one second she is all distant and cold-faced and the next she is friendly and warm. It kinda freaked me out.”

“Shuri!”, I protested embarrassed.

“What? It´s true!”

“Yeah, I don´t like Rogers, but I wasn´t that mean to him!”, I kept my voice joking to make sure, they knew that I wasn´t really offend. 

“That´s the cool thing. You were totally polite the whole time. I honestly don´t know how you do that!”

I laughed quietly and Ramonda teased: “Maybe Shuri can learn something from you there”

“Mother!”, now it was Shuri´s turn to be embarrassed. 

“What? It´s true!”, replied Ramonda and I thought that the movies didn´t do her sass justice.

This night it wasn´t that easy to fall asleep, but it must have happened at some point. Because I suddenly woke up whispering disturbed: “I did order them around!”

___ At the same time in another apartment___  
Bucky and Steve were sitting on the dining table, eating and telling each other about their day. 

“I visited Mira today”, that sentence was interesting, because it was said by both of them at once. They shot each other a surprised look, before continuing, again at the same time:

“I don´t like her”  
“She´s really nice”

After a few more looks, Bucky requested: “Explain”

“Well, she only nodded as a greeting. That isn´t so bad, but she was just generally really cold…”

After he had told his friend the whole story, said man shook his head with an amused grin.  
After telling Steve, what he had experienced, he teased: “Hate to break it to ya, but it seems, we found the one high school girl that doesn´t like you”

Little did he know about the PSA´s and the effect that it had on everyone forced to watch it more than a few times.  
____________________________

The next day Shuri decided to show me around in her lab. She explained everything and I am proud to say that I actually understood a lot of it. I mean she did simplify it and there were still awfully many things that I just didn´t know enough about to even thing about understanding.

A few hours into the tour, one of the doctors I had seen on my first day here came in asking: “You wanted to talk to me, princess?”

“Yes! A second. Mira, could you please sort these by how high the number is, when you put them in this machine?”

She shoved a box of stones (I think), a pen and a paper in my direction and showed me, how to do it. I nodded and she turned to the woman: “I wanted to talk about cognitive recalibration...”

Half an hour later, shortly after I ran out of stones, Shuri finished her conversation.  
“So, it turns out, that it´s actually pretty easy. We just have to put Barnes in the freezer and wipe certain parts of his memories.”

I cringed: “He´s not gonna like that.”

At Shuri´s questioning look I explained: “HYDRA used to wipe his memories. It was painful, and just generally terrible.” I had had nightmares from that scene in TWS. 

“Ouch. We gotta give him a lot of time to get used to the idea. In that time, we can build his arm!”

“And we gotta get him a therapist. I will talk to him, if that´s okay.”

“That´d be great! I will tell someone to get him to the palace in an hour. Where do you wanna talk?”

“The same room as yesterday?” 

Now it was an hour later and I was waiting in the salon. It was a comfortable, big room with two sofas, a table that carried two glasses and a bottle of water. I was just getting impatient, when I heard a knock on the door. 

“Come in”, I said, and so he did. He stopped at the door until I asked him to take a seat. Coming over to the sofa he handed me a knife before sitting down and I was reminded of a tumblr post, I had once seen about this. I could see the pain in his face as he realized, what he did; and decided, not to address it. Instead asked, if he wanted some water, placing the knife on the table. After he nodded, I filled two glasses and sat down opposite of him. 

“So, how have you been?” That was me, a socially awkward, trying to start a conversation. 

“I´ve been okay. If you don’t mind me asking: Was there a reason you wanted to talk to me?” 

I was grateful that he jumped straight to the point and didn´t try to small talk. I avoided the thought that that was probably also Hydras fault. Boy, I hated those people. 

“Yes, several. The first one is about getting a therapist…”, I answered, waiting for a reaction. The man in front of me frowned. His face went blank and he opened his mouth to say something.

I didn´t let him, continuing: “I understand that you don´t like the idea. But I am sure, you also understand the importance of it. Right?”

“The princess agreed to get the words out of my head”, he gritted out, face still not betraying any emotion. 

I sighed quietly, then explained: “That is not what I was talking about and you know it.” I just let my voice sharpen slightly, showing him that I was serious but also trying not to scare him away. 

He tried to answer, but I raised my left hand to stop him (If I was ordering them around anyways… go big or go home) and was surprised, when he did, indeed, close his mouth.  
Then I added: “I went to a therapist a lot. And my problems were extremely harmless, especially compared to yours. My mother is… was? a therapist and I know a bit about psychology. But even if I didn´t I would notice that you have severe depression, ptsd and anxiety.” 

I stopped shortly to see if he would protest and when he didn´t I continued: “I understand that it is difficult to open up to someone you don´t know. Hell, sometimes it is difficult to open up to someone you do know. But it is important for you and for others that you do that.”

Bucky considered this for a torturously long time before he reluctantly said: “You gotta find me a mighty good therapist then”  
I exhaled relived, before I remembered, why the man was here in the first place.

“The second reason…” I began, “is that Shuri and the doctors found a way to get the trigger words out of your head…” 

I hesitated again and it took an impatient: “Yes?” from Barnes to get me talking again: “They need to, as Shuri put it, put you in the freezer… and then they have to… they have to wipe certain parts of your memory.”

My voice was as calm as I wasn´t. I half expected Bucky to attack me, or something. But all he did was sitting there, eyes fixed at a point in the air. I decided to let him process the said and stay silent.  
It was almost ten minutes later that Barned finally moved, even if it was only his mouth: “No other way to do that?”  
“If that´s the only one that Shuri and the doctors can come up with… I am afraid, no”

He nodded slowly, eyes still unfocused and said: “I have to think about that. I will go home now”  
I briefly wondered, how fast he accepted his and Steves apartment here as home. Then I remembered, that he probably was used to many changes of his location from his time as Winter Soldier. 

As he stood up, I did the same, deciding: “I am coming with you.”  
I didn´t want him to fall down in case, he wasn´t focused enough to walk. I probably should have said that, because I saw a sad look flashing over his face. He thought that I saw him as a threat. But if I told him now, he would think I was lying to him, so I didn´t. 

We walked through the palace to his apartment in silence, the man next to me occasionally swaying and me always reaching out to help him if he did.  
When we arrived, I entered with him. The Captain was sitting on the couch and looked up, when he heard us. Concern was visible in his eyes when he looked at Bucky, who moved to sit down opposite of him. 

“Ah, Mr. Rogers. Can I talk to you for a second”, I asked trying to make it seem like it wasn´t about his the visibly shocked man I came here with.

He came over to me and I said quietly: “I just informed Mr. Barnes, that the words can only be removed by wiping some of his memories. You should not leave him alone right now.”

The man just nodded, so I said bye and made my way back to Shuris lab.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I haven´t been updating for a while. I´m afraid, you can expect me to continue that way, I am lazy.  
> That you all for the support. As always, kudos and comments are appretiated. So is constructive critisism. Again, I am still learing English, so I might have made some mistakes in this chapter, if you notice any, please tell me.

Just four weeks later, Tony Stark was fully healed and clear to go home. Which he had - five minutes ago a plane left, containing him and the broken parts of his suit that could be re-used. (most of it was trash, but Stark had insisted on taking almost everything with him. He probably had some sort of emotional connection to the suit and felt bad leaving it in Wakanda.) T`Challa also gave him some Vibranium to build a new, more durable suit. Probably because he felt guilty. (Or maybe he just was nice like that. It was difficult to tell. Either way, the other tribe rulers were not exactly happy about his decision. But they didn´t question it either.) 

After Tony had woken up, he had been pretty confused. He had been told where he was and how he got there. But (at T´Challas orders) no one told him where the super soldiers were. He knew, they where in Wakanda and he wanted to, as he phrased it, have a serious talk with them. The prince thought that it would be safer for everyone if that didn´t happen. 

Tony had been furious but he couldn´t do anything about it so he stopped mentioning it after two days of constant nagging. A week after that, when he had had time to calm himself down and recover a bit from what had happened, he decided that, even though he never wanted to see Barnes again, the man was a victim. I was surprised that he showed reason so soon, but I wasn´t about to complain. I still decided to keep an eye on him if he ever met Barnes. 

Tony accepting Bucky made talking to him way less stressing. (No need to dance around certain topics and no awkward conversations whenever said topics did come up) And talk to him I did, every day. He was a sarcastic little shit, that stubbornly refused to open up, but I liked him. When Ms. Potts was there, he didn´t go out of his way to slightly annoy me the way he normally did. So that was nice too. 

Ms. Potts had wanted to stay until her boyfriend would be able to go with her, but PR drama made her leave after the third day. (I might write a chapter on that later) 

Shaking my head, I snapped out of my mental flashback and into the present where I was standing at the airport.  
The Team Cap was supposed to arrive every second. 

That was another thing that had happened during the last four weeks. T´Challa, Ms. Potts and a reluctant Mr. Stark had reasoned, employed a whole bunch of lawyers and after a lot of hard work they managed several things: 

Firstly, they got the Sokovian Accords declared illegal and every hero who had signed them no longer had to stick to the contract. (Maybe I`ll write an extra chapter about that) 

Secondly, they informed the people about how the Team Cap was treated in the underwater prison and after a lot of public backlash (they were still heroes after all) they even got them free. 

And that was why T`Challa and I were still standing on the airport even after Tony had left. At that moment I felt Barnes and Rogers walking up behind me. They (And by they I mean Steve) had initially wanted to say goodbye to Tony as well but I listed all the reasons why that would have been a bad idea. (My main point was the trauma) 

Those two where another thing. Mr. Rogers clearly didn´t like me and I kinda understood that. He hadn´t talked to me since I had told him about us having to wipe Bucky to get the trigger words out. 

Barnes had talked to me. Six days ago, he came to me to tell me that he would agree to be put in the freezer. His eyes had looked positively terrified, but (after I asked him) he affirmed that he was perfectly sure. 

I took the opportunity to tell him about the therapist the Dora Milaje had found. He had even promised me to go to them two times a week for a month (until the freezer was ready) if they turned out to be good. That wasn´t ideal of cause, he should go twice a day nine days a week at least. But I knew that that would have been too much to ask of him.  
After that we had had a daily small talk that after a few times lost the “small” part. Bucky had opened up to me very quickly, yesterday he had even told me that he still didn´t remember much from the past. I could see that that had been a difficult confession to make. And it took a lot of encouraging for him to look okay again (I might write a chapter on this later) 

The sound of Steve and Bucky greeting me and the prince pulled me out of my second flashback that hour. I really hoped that wasn´t a sign that I was about to go insane. 

Shrugging off that thought I said: “Good morning to you too, Mr. Rogers, Bucky. How are you doing, Barnes?” 

I purposefully excluded the Captain from my question showing him that I did not appreciate the look he sent me when I used that nickname.

“`m okay, I guess. You?”

“Same. I see, you finally decided to wash your hair?” I teased, carefully, so I didn´t actually hurt him.

But he just chuckled and shook his hair like a model. I laughed and came to a realization: Since Steve was a pretty serious person, he didn´t joke around a lot. And because he knew Bucky from a time, he didn´t remember, Cap didn´t know how to behave around him. That left me to be the one lightening the mood. I was, so to say, the comedic relieve in his live. 

“I see, you didn´t”, he teased back and I shook my head smiling. (I had of cause washed my hair – yesterday, so it didn´t look as clean as it could.) And that was where our conversation was interrupted by a plane landing a few meters in front of us. 

The door opened and a bunch of super heroes left it. Natasha was leading the way, followed by Sam and Clint, after them there were Wanda and Scott. 

They walked towards us but stopped in a safe distance from the prince, understandably apprehensive of the man who had fought them at the airport.

If T`Challa noticed their hesitation, he didn´t let it show, saying: “Welcome to Wakanda!”

Next to him, Steve asked: “Are you alright?” He sounded like he was scared to hear the answer. 

But Natasha reassured him: “We will be.” A clever way to calm him down without lying. Just what I had expected from her.

“Come with me, there´s lunch prepared in the dining room. We wanted to do a bigger celebration, but Mira here convinced us that you would be more comfortable with something less public”, said the prince and gestured in my direction. 

Now, there is something I need you to know about me. I had only been so calm through everything that has happened until now because I a) was still under drugs, and (later) b) was calm around everyone because I had already met them in my drugged state and they had been okay (Steve), or nice (everyone else). 

Right now, neither a, nor b were the case and that meant that I was feeling a little anxious. And by that I mean that I was full out panicking. I am talking sweaty palms, trembling legs, a tight throat and picking my hands apart due to nervous fidgeting. 

I stopped that last part, as soon as T`Challa directed the attention at me, determined to make a good first impression. (to look more confident than I was, that is)  
I smiled at them and hoped it looked confident instead of apprehensive. 

“Yeah, I wanted to ask about the girl”, Sam took the opportunity.

I answered: “We can talk, but I would prefer it, if we went to the dining room first, I am starving.”  
I turned around and started walking there, Bucky and T´Challa following me first, then the others.

I slowed my steps until I was walking next to Barnes, because I had noticed, his face showing less and less emotion since the team Cap had stepped out of the plane.

“Everything okay?”, I asked, not sure whether to expect an honest answer or not. 

He (to my surprise) gave me one: “Well, it´s nothing… I just, when I saw them… It´s my fault, they were in that prison in the first place” He was whispering and got even quieter towards the end, I almost couldn´t hear him.

But I did and I rushed to reassure him: “I understand that you think that. But it was not your fault. On one hand, it was their own, free decision to do what they did. And on the other hand, the prison was entirely… the governments fault. You have absolutely nothing to blame yourself for!”

I think I heard him mumble that he could think of a few things, but before I could react to that I heard Shuri calling me from the dining room that we had almost reached at that point. 

Making sure to send Bucky a reassuring smile, I sped up my steps until I was half running to the dining room. The second I arrived there, Shuri started to tell me very excitedly about a new project of hers that I didn´t fully understand. 

I interrupted her, asking: “You do remember that the other `heroes´ arrived today, right?”

“Oh, right! That was today. Where are they? Ah, there! Hi, white people and Falcon, welcome in Wakanda. Although my brother probably already said that. I´m Shuri.” 

I chuckled while we all moved inside and took seats at the table. (T`Challas mother wasn´t here, she had some politics business to attend to) I sat down next to Shuri, who sat next to the prince. Bucky sat down on my other side leaving Steve almost no choice other than to sit down near me, which he did. 

The new arrivers (?) were a little more hesitant, but eventually, when everyone was sitting, the food was brought in.

Soon everyone was eating in silence. The whole situation was pretty awkward (for obvious reasons) so everyone was reluctant to start a conversation.

Luckily, after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Sam decided to bite the bullet, asking: “We are in the dining room now and we are eating. I think, the requirements are met. Can we talk about the kid now?”

I repeated my story and was briefly met with disbelieve, but when Shuri started telling us about the results of her research concerning me, they stopped questioning my story and started believing me. She hadn´t found a way to send me back, (not that I expected her to) but she had been able to prove once and for all that I wasn´t from this universe. Don´t ask me how, I didn´t understand a word of what she had said. 

Soon actual conversations began to grow. Shuri was already talking with her brother and Steve told everyone else about something, I didn´t bother listening. 

That left me awkwardly looking at my plate. I was a bit uncomfortable. Everyone had someone at the table that they had known for longer than I had even been here. I kinda was the odd one out.

Bucky was focused on whatever Steve was talking about. But – due to reasons – he had a habit of observing the whole room all the time. That was how he noticed how uncomfortable I was.  
So he averted his attention from Steve and asked me: “How was your day, Mira?”

I could almost feel the glare Steve send me when he noticed that Bucky had turned away from him. And I could also see, that Bucky kept glancing at Steve while I answered. Is that a hint of Stucky, I see? I mean, I wouldn´t be too surprised if Steve just wanted all of the attention, but somehow, I thought that this was a thing specifically about Bucky´s Attention.

“It was pretty regular until the whole hero-business started. It´s really weird meeting all those people in real live, not only in movies.”

“Talking about movies – yesterday I was talking with the princess and she said something about how I would like Star Wars. What is Star Wars?”

“I can´t believe, she said that.” I turned to Shuri and lightly boxed her shoulder “I can´t believe, you said that. We both know very well that Star Trek isn´t just generally better, but also better for Bucky!”

Shuri gasped and said something about the old Star Wars/Trek discourse and how I had chosen the wrong side.

Deciding on a compromise I announced: “We are officially making a movie marathon some evening this week, Bucky, you will love it!”

“Oh, movie marathon? Can I join in?”, asked Clint. I considered this for a second. On one hand, movie night was funnier the more people where there. On the other hand, I didn´t want to overwhelm Bucky by forcing too much social interaction on him so soon.

So I shook my head: “Maybe next week”

Clint grumbled something about unfair treatment cliques and how he deserved movie night. Bucky however looked relived. 

But before I could respond, Okoje stormed into the room, yelling something in Wakandnian (?) T`Challa rushed out of the room, the super heroes right behind him. Shuri looked at me, then at the door and at the same time we stood up to follow the adults. 

We ran through the halls right back to the airport. It was times like this that I regretted being a lazy person who never did sport. I made a mental note to change that. Maybe the Dora Milaje would give me fighting lessons? I would ask Shuri later. Now I concentrated on following the others. 

When we arrived, I was thoroughly out of breath and the sight that awaited me didn´t help that at all. 

Because just at that moment I remembered that in the white void, when I had selected the universe specifics, Thor and co had been estimated to arrive a month after I did. Which, coincidently was today.

What I am saying is, I saw Thor (with his new haircut) and Dr. Banner standing in the middle of these things that Heimdall produced when he beamed people around. Next to them I saw the air shimmering suspiciously. If it wasn´t entirely impossible, one might think that some invisible person was standing there. But that´s entirely impossible, of cause. Loki? Who is she, never heard of her?

“Hi, Midgardians!”, greeted Thor.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I´m sorry, that it took so long for me to finally post this and i really hope that the next chapter will be up sooner.   
> As always, kudos are amazing and comments keep me going. Thank you guys for reading this.

Hi, Midgardians!”, greeted Thor, “What is this place? This doesn´t look like the Midgard I know.” While Thor was still asking this question, Bruce already ran forward and hugged Steve. Bucky, right next to him looked alerted and I could see that he had a hard time stopping himself from “saving” his best friend from this stranger. 

“Who is this?”, he demanded to know.

I answered: “Bruce Banner, he is/was an Avenger, so he and Rogers are friends. The guy over there? Thor, yes, like in the Norse myths. Also an Avenger.”

“And the guy hiding behind him?”

That´s what I call super soldier instincts.   
“Well”, I started, then, making sure no one else could hear us: “That´d be Loki, his brother. He is a good guy now, even though he tried to take over earth some years ago. The Avengers fought against him back them. But honestly, Loki didn´t do that shit because he wanted to.

“He´s okay now?”

And that was definitely sympathy in his voice. Suddenly, I was sure that the two of them would bond (over dramatic pasts, mostly being forced to be the bad guy).   
“He won´t ever be the heroic kind of person, but yeah, he´s okay now.” 

By now, Thor, Natasha and Clint had joined (had been forced to join) the hug.   
Due to the little superpower, I gave myself in the void, I felt more then saw Loki approaching. I knew that he was standing right behind of Bucky, and looking directly at him I warned: “Don´t try any funny business.” 

Not that thought he would. It was more of a way to warn Bucky and to let the god know that someone had discovered him. If the latter was surprised about it, he didn´t show it. He didn´t show at all, actually.   
Barnes, however, turned around appruptly and immediately fell into a fighting stance.   
I put an hand on his shoulder and quietly asked him to turn back around.

“If some of the others find out that he is here before Thor can explain it, they will attack him.”

Casting nervous glances at the “empty” space behind him, he turned back around. Shuri, who stood at the other side of the group, shoot me a questioning look, but I didn´t think that anyone else noticed.   
Now the group hug dissolved and Thor said: “I can´t stay that long, my people need me. But I really wanted to see my friends again! Talking about that – where is Stark?” 

“About that…”, T`Challa interrupted: “We should maybe go back inside.”

“Before we do that. You might remember Loki?”, trust Thor to jump straight to the point.

“Oh no. Don´t tell me he broke free.”, that was Steve, who sounded reasonably worried.

Thor looked a bit guilty when he answered: “Okay, long story. Let´s make it short. Loki helped me defeat the dark elves who wanted something like the Theserakt. And then I thought he died. And some time ago I found out that he was actually alive and impersonating my father. Who died more then a month ago, by the way. And then we got trapped on an alien planet where we found Bruce. And then we fought our sister that we didn´t even know about. And she almost destroyed Asgard. What I am saying is that he is good now. No taking over the world anymore is what I am saying.”

Steve raised his eyebrow: “Are you sure?”

Now I heard a voice from behind me: “He is right. Taking over planets is way too much effort. I am already practically ruling Asgard, my brother over there has no talent for politics. And why go for Midgard, if you already have the superior planet?”

I turned around just in time to see Loki materializing behind me. He wore the same outfit, that made Thor call him a witch and had a smile on his face. I could see right trough this, he was hiding that he was afraid of the hero’s reaction and readying himself to fight if necessary.  
He was not the only one preparing for a fight, the Avengers did too. Only Loki was way more subtle about it. Clint had his bow drawn, Wanda had her magic flaring up around her, Natasha activated her Widow-bites and the others stood in fighting stances. 

Loki held his hands up and snarked: “Wow, you look like you expect me to attack you!”

“We do”, said Clint dryly.

“Oh please. I am outnumbered and I have no backup. I am not stupid.”

Then he added: “Of cause I also don´t want to attack you, since, remember, I am a good guy now. It feels weird saying that. Thor, do you always have to do that?”

I decided to answer that question: “No, that´s just a thing if you tried to take over the planet and killed multiple people the last time you were seen here”

“Okay, that makes sense. Well, now that we established that I am not dangerous, can we go inside? It´s insanely hot out here”

Thor agreed: “Yes! And then you can tell me what this place is. I don´t know it from my previous visits on earth. Also, what are those planes? How do they work?”

“Yes, let´s get back and continue eating!”, decided Shuri and, grabbing my arm, she led our group to the dining room. With shrug T’challa followed her. I was pretty sure he whispered something about how this day couldn´t get any weirder. Thor was the last one to start walking, but, shooting a longing glance at the planes, he did, eventually. 

“Are you okay, Mira? Loki didn´t hurt you?”, asked Shuri quietly, so that the god wouldn´t hear her. (He did, of cause. I felt him looking at us)

“No, didn´t. You heard him, he´s a good guy now.”

Shuri didn´t get to ask me whether or not I was crazy for believing him (I could see the question in her eyes), because once again, someone (Thor) asked who I was. 

“Well, you see, she...”; Steve begun, only to be interrupted by me.

“I can introduce myself, thank you. See, one day I woke up…”, and then I told my story again, expecting to be met with unbelieving looks, that, surprisingly, never came. They just nodded and that was it. I supposed, they´d seen weirder things during the last months  
(if Okoye thought no one noticed the way she never took her eyes of Loki – and that there suddenly where a lot more Dora-Milaje Warriors then before, then she thought wrong. But she probably was aware of how uncomfortable Loki looked) 

After arriving at the dining room, we were faced with a problem.

“We don´t have enough chairs. I´ll ask someone to get some”, that was Shuri, pointing out the obvious. She disappeared for a minute during which the discussions, as to who would stand began. 

Thor settled it by shouting that he and Loki would stand and if Steve would like to stand with them and wait for the extra chairs “You can update us on what happened since we left”   
As soon as that was decided everyone (excluding Bruce, who also wanted to know the tea), sat down again.   
After I saw that everyone else started eating again, I did too. 

I sat there, quietly eating my food, until Bucky asked: “If it turns out, Loki is really a good guy, can we invite him to movie night?”

I shared a short look with Shuri before answering: “Sure”

I would have liked to ask him why he wanted the god there, but I decided not to. (Partly because I had an idea that this might be about Loki also being forced to be evil)   
By now the extra chairs had arrived and everyone found a place to sit down. Thor placed his chair between Bucky and Steve and neither of the two looked overly happy about that.   
Loki took his chair and a plate and sat down near the wall, but far away from everyone else. Which - probably self-preservation. No one could pretend that they didn´t see the hostile looks that the super soldiers and the super spies send him. Or the suspicious ones from the Wakandaniens.

Still, in the movies I always liked his sarcastic humor, so I asked Bucky and Shuri: “Come on, lets go over there too.” And I stood up and took my chair. Shuri did too, reluctantly, and after a while, so did Bucky.   
As we sat down again, Loki looked up. Then he proceeded to ignore us. Well. 

“So, Bucky, Star Trek. It’s a great series. It´s about…”, I started to explain in order to avoid any and all awkward silence.   
After a few minutes of ranting about my favorite series, I decided to bite the bullet: “Oh, by the way, Loki. We are going to have a movie night soon. You are invited.”

“Who is we?”

“We – Shuri, Bucky and me”

“If Thor and I haven´t gone back to Asgard by then, we will come”

At that, Bucky looked distressed. He hadn´t wanted to invite Thor. 

I quickly picked up on this, and said: “Oh, no, not Thor. Just you are invited.”

“Oh, okay… what would we be watching?”  
“  
Well, I didn´t explain the entire Star Trek universe for nothing”  
“  
When will this movie night be?”

I looked at Shuri. Personally, I had all the time in the world. It wasn´t like I was going to school. The princess, however, had a lot of responsibilities (that she, against common conception didn´t tend to ignore.”

“Hmm, how about in two days? At 7 p.m. in my room? I´ve got a gigantic screen”

“Sure, works for me”, I said. Bucky nodded and Loki mused that he would probably still be there. 

“Awesome”

Suddenly I heard Steve’s voice from behind: “What are you talking about?”

Shuri answered: “Movie night”

“Movie night? I´d like to join”, he didn´t phrase it as a question.

I frowned: “Depends. Bucky, Shuri?”  
Bucky nodded immediately, and Shuri shrugged.

“Great”; Steve said and, casting an irritated look at the god, that was met by a calm, almost mocking one, went back to the table. 

“Yeah, great”, echoed Loki, voice dripping of sarcasm.. He didn´t cancel though, so I saw that as a win.   
(I see this as an absolute win)

We then continued eating in comfortable silence, and when everyone was finished, Shuri stood up and clapped her hands: “Everyone! I know, we said, we wouldn´t throw a big party. And that statement still stands. But I took the liberty to prepare a dessert-buffet in the salon just down the hall. Please follow me”

Well, that was a nice surprise. Not just for everyone else, but also for me. So that was the reason, Shuri had spend so much time “in her lab” in the last few days.   
As soon as we arrived in the buffet-room,   
I turned to the princess: “Wow! That is beautiful!” And it was. There were a lot of high tables all around the room. Along the walls there where beautiful dark-wood tables that held all kinds of drinks and small portions of desserts. 

“Thanks”

“Thank you, Shuri!”; said T`Challa and took a chocolate cake. And then the eating began. I threw myself at the chocolate mouse and, since I hadn´t eaten chocolate in a while, I just stood there for a few minutes, concentrating on eating and nothing else. Because, you know, chocolate.   
So, when Loki suddenly stood in front of me, I was a bit startled. 

“Why did you invite me to the movie night? Don´t say it´s just because you wanted to get to know me. If this is some kind of trap, I will notice and you don´t want that”

I sighed: “See, I understand why you think that. I really do. But we really didn´t have any ulterior motive when we invited you. And, believe me, I also wasn´t happy when Rogers invited himself.”

Loki raised an eyebrow, but left it otherwise uncommented.   
“Well, in this case I am looking forward to the event”

“Yeah, me too.” 

I felt a presence behind me, and turning around, I noticed that Bucky was standing behind me. His face had the usual, blank look that he wore around people that he didn´t know. I saw the way, he looked at Loki, before turning to me. And that made me think, that he had come here to protect me, in case Loki tried something. Bucky didn´t trust strangers easily. Even though, he had been the one who wanted to get to know Loki in the first place. 

Deciding to dissolve the tense atmosphere that had started to form around us, I said: “Bucky! Have you tried the strawberry cake yet? I have been wanting to get a slice, but the Chocolate Mouse!”

“No, I haven’t”

“Well, let´s go there!”

Bucky and I made our way to the strawberry cakes and Loki was left behind. Unfortunately, Steve saw this as an invitation to engage Bucky in a conversation. Bucky shot me a guilty glance before he turned his attention to his best friend.   
Trying hard to keep the irritation of my face, I took a slice of cake and walked over to where Shuri was talking with Thor. 

I arrived just in time to hear Thor say: “So, tell me if I get this wrong, the planes work by (insert like a minute of science talk)” 

Shuri nodded and then exclaimed: “Ah, Mira, there you are. Have you already talked to Thor? He had wanted to ask some questions about your universe.”

“Sure, what do you wanna know, Thor?”   
And then the three of us talked about whether Thor and Asgard in general existed in my universe. (“But you said that the myths exist” “Yeah, they do, but that doesn´t mean that you actually exist.”) 

Thor and I instantly got along – even though we were on different sides of the argument. The god of thunder just was a nice person. I could see that the whole thing with his sister had had it´s impact on Thor. He looked tired, even though he tired to hide it. 

“When are you and Loki going back to Asgard?”, I asked, to overcome the silence that our conversation had faded into.

“In a week. Provided Heimdall doesn´t call us back earlier. Asgard is fairly stable by now, but you never know…”, he trailed of, thinking about his people. 

"I´m sure, they´re gonna be all right. And even if something should happen, you can be there in minutes – and the Avengers got you covered”; I said, trying to reassure him. Thor really could use some vacation. Even though Ragnarök hadn´t actually happened in this universe, all the things that had happened must have been pretty hard on his psyche.

Soon Thor was taken over by the other Avengers and I stayed with Shuri during the rest of the event. Bucky hadn´t been able to escape Steve until the evening. Overall, I would say that Shuri´s dessert buffet had been a success. Almost everyone had talked to almost everyone in the duration of the evening. Loki had made the wise decision not to approach anyone, but to make polite small talk whenever anyone talked to him. Steve had made his rounds and had spoken to every Avenger, Bucky tailing after him. After the event I had the feeling that people had started trusting each other a bit more and the atmosphere certainly was friendlier than before.


End file.
